Forum - View topicAnime characters with their eyes closed.
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IchigoK90
 Posts: 1634 Location: Scarborough, Ontario |
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Its entirely plausible for a person to smile with their eyes closed, or at the very least give the illusion that they are smiling with their eyes closed and make it look normal. I have these two friends that appear to have their eyes closed when smiling (in this case both of them are chinese and girls). What I found the reason to be is that both of them have small eyes and high cheek bones. So when they smile the cheeks are raised and it makes their eyes squint with the skin that is raised with the cheek bone. I don't think it looks weird but I will admit that I make fun of them for it by telling them not to smile while driving
 . That's a horrible thing to say (I know, I got slapped for it one time) but it was rather funny.
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daxomni
 Posts: 2650 Location: Somewhere else. |
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The curved smiling eyes that some people seem to think are being drawn as closed are really just an exaggeration of a common trait among some folks of Asian decent. The eyes don't really close, but the eyelids move just enough to slightly change the shape of the eyes. In anime this is greatly exaggerated to look like a half-circle but the eyes are not really closed, it's just meant to be a really obvious or pronounced smile. It's kind of cute in my view, at least among Japanese women. Not all of them have this trait but when you see them smile in such a manner it's hard not to smile back. As for the straight eyes that look closed, it can be used to show age, wisdom, ignorance, shyness, and indifference. In my understanding it doesn't usually mean their eyes are really closed so much as someone who doesn't look at you directly. The old man with tired eyes. The wise man who doesn't think you're important enough to meet eyes with. The cautious man who doesn't get involved with other people's business. The shy man who doesn't want to draw attention to himself, and so on. I think it would be hard to define it any more than that as there are lots of characters with this trait. |
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TheVok
Posts: 613 Location: North York, Ontario, Canada |
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On a sidenote, Clark Kent/Superman's eyes often appeared 'closed' in the Fleischers' animated theatrical shorts in the 1940s.
It's certainly not just an anime trope .... |
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Cow-Boy_Be-Bop
 Posts: 670 Location: In front of the computer |
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Am I the only one that knows brock opens his eyes once? I couldn't find the clip of it but he's making faces at a baby or something and this is what it looks like.
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Top Gun
 Posts: 4602 |
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Gyaaaah.
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Elfen12
 Posts: 479 Location: Bay Area |
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That is true. I know this has already been answered, but i thought i'd add my 2 cents worth. In animes where strength is a factor of power, i find it that those characters who are often stronger, generally do that "walk around with eyes clothes" jig thing. For example in E's Otherwise spoiler[ Both Maxim Feller and Eiji Sagimiya do it. Esepcially Eiji, he walks around everywhere, only when alone, like that. But yes, i also saw Maxim do a bit of that throughout the anime.] Also, in all animes whether power is a component, it seems like when characters are waiting, oftentimes they'll stand up for minutes just with their eyes clothes almost as if they're sleeping. I must admit, i know some people do it and i find myself doing ti sometimes, but ... again pertaining to my E's Otherwise example, Sagimiya was doing it once and it stood out to me. It's also the very smart ones who do it too. Like in Spiral, Ayumu Narumi does it a lot too, whether he be standing waiting for something/letting time pass him by, or if he's walking. Except, he does it too when he's walking with people sometimes. Another example of this "smarts" one is with Great Teacher Onizuka, both Kanzaki and kikuchi do it, and they seem to be the smartest ones in the anime. I think kikuchi does it a tad more often though. I just wanted to put that out there as two distinct examples of the closing eyes things, and the differnent types of character types who seem to do it. I think it's more with the smart types that it gives that mysterious aura about them. A sort of, "what are their true objectives (in what they're doing)"... type feel. I like it though, the added affect is intriguing. -Elfen12- |
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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It was a baby Larvitar.
And the video I've seen must have been taken down, probably by force since no video has been put up to replace it. @daxomni: Yeah, I think I get what you are saying. However, it is still a stupid trope, especially when we consider that Anime girls with circular or oval eyes (oval vertically, not horizontally) suddenly have their eyes almost closed when smiling. This despite the fact that when not smiling their cheek bones are practically at the level of their mouths, so massive are their very non-Asian eyes. |
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motaku96
 Posts: 237 Location: New York |
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ummmm.....I'm not sure how accurate this info is but the fox spirit in folk tales in japan often had slits for eyes. the fox was usually a mischievous character that played tricks on people.
ummm.....i'm not sure how that applies to brock(maybe because he's a womanizer) but some other characters that had slits for eyes that were also mysterious were ichimaru(bleach) and xellos(slayers). i think they fit the fox description perfectly. oh and kitsune from love hina was given that name which means fox spirit and she has the personality of a fox and also had the slit eyes. |
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Shiroi Hane
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 7580 Location: Wales |
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Actally, Kitsune literally means "fox", not specifically "fox spirit". The nickname was based on her real name, Konno Mitsune, although this was presumably thought out in advance when naming her.
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FLMikeATT
 Posts: 58 |
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Ichimaru ftw! Sometimes it's odd and throws me off a little, but other times I don't even notice it. I guess it all depends on the character and how prominent it is. |
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Jradford17
Posts: 9 |
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I'm wondering how Chouji (Naruto/Naruto Shippuuden) fits into all of this, I wouldn't think he's a mysterious character. Half the time the eyes are "closed" but there's a good deal of screen time where his eyes are open, more than could probably be justified with emotion. Well unless ANY emotion sets him off... Feels over-used and slightly creepy but then I guess the anime is aimed at kids who are used to things being exaggerated a lot. Is it just me?
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motaku96
Posts: 237 Location: New York |
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I think with Choji, his eyes are usually only closed when he's eating or he's happy. In this case the closed eyes thing is just used to show that he's smiling.
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Nandeyanen
 Posts: 13 |
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Well that's anime physics for you. 
IMO I think closed eyes are just another way of drawing eyes to give a character a trademark personality/look, and I'm guessing they probably didn't factor real world physics/practicalities as they were drawing Character A. Or maybe by the time they got round to drawing/designing Character A they just couldn't be bothered drawing proper eyes anymore. In any case, you know something epic's about to happen when they open their eyes. |
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retty
 Posts: 118 Location: Cheshire, UK |
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I always thought Brok had closed eyes to make him look foreign, since he had darker skin too and everyone else had pale skin and large eyes.
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